Chapter 61
There’s no denying that Seferin is a handsome man. I can see why he appealed to Analla so much, especially since she flocks to powerful men with dark features.
Seferin has a strong jaw, full light-pink lips, and slightly pointed ears. He appears young, yet everything about his demeanor is practiced and calm, as if he’s roamed Thelanor for many, many years. His youth likely has something to do with his practice of black magic.
There’s nothing but pure evil in his eyes, though. How Analla hadn’t seen such malevolence at first sight confuses me. This man is a walking xerven.
“Well, hello.” Seferin’s sharp-toothed smile makes my skin crawl. “Zaira, correct?”
I try not to react to him knowing my name and lift the dagger higher. “I know you have my sister in your dungeon, and I want her out.”
One of the guards rushes for me, but I swing the dagger and slash at his face, performing one of the moves Rynthea taught me.
Blood wells and trickles down his cheek.
“You bitch!” he roars, grabbing hold of my upper arm and yanking me toward him.
“I’ll enjoy killing you, you little shit,” he spits in my face.
“No, no. Let her go.” Seferin’s voice is much too relaxed, considering I’ve just attacked one of his people.
I pull myself away from the guard, throwing him a grimace before focusing on Seferin again and pointing the dagger at him.
Seferin takes a step forward and tilts his head, studying my weapon. “A gift?”
“What?” I snap, mildly confused.
“That’s a dagger from The Divine, no?” He lifts a hand, and the dagger flies out of mine to land in his. He catches it by the blade’s edge, hands curling around the metal as he inspects the hilt. There’s no blood on him, despite how sharp the dagger is.
“Ah.” Seferin chuckles to himself. “Yes. I can sense his magic. This belonged to Thane Valkor.”
My heart drums a faster rhythm at Thane’s name. He senses his magic? Does that mean he knows Thane is nearby? Or does he only sense it on the weapon because it was his?
“You two,” Seferin calls, not taking his eyes off of me. “Leave.”
The guards carry themselves through the corridor without hesitation. Seferin finally turns his eyes away so he can go to the double doors. He opens one of them wider.
“Come in.” He gestures inside the room. “Let’s have a chat about your darling sister…and the thing you have that I need.”
My throat dries. I swallow to moisten it.
Pulse pounding in my ears, I trudge forward and move past him to enter the room. As soon as I’m inside, though, all the air leaves my lungs because standing near the window with deeply furrowed brows is Maliek.
His arms are folded, mask up, and blue eyes narrowed. If looks could kill, I’d surely be dead—just like he’s supposed to be.
Fuck.
His presence throws off the plan. I hadn’t factored him in. How the shadows is he even here right now?
I run a hand across my forehead, feeling heat bloom at the center to activate Thane’s mindflare spell. We have a problem, Thane. Maliek is here.
The con to this spell is he can hear me, but I can’t hear him.
“Please have a seat.” Seferin walks past me to sit in a large leather chair behind the only desk in the room. His walk is more of a slow stride, as if he has all the time in the world.
I can’t bring myself to move. I just stare at Maliek, waiting to see if he’ll dash across the room and stab me, just as I stabbed him in the temple. How did Seferin get his body all the way here from The Shallows so quickly? How is Maliek even still standing?
“Don’t worry. He won’t harm you,” Seferin informs me.
“How is he here?” I’m glad my voice doesn’t waver.
“You’d be surprised what my magic can do.” Seferin gestures to one of the chairs on the opposite side of his desk.
I glance at Maliek again before moving with caution and sitting. The study doors swing open again, and two nightmaidens in masks stroll inside. One sashays to Maliek, while another slinks her way to Seferin like a feline.
“We need more.” The girl drops to her knees next to Seferin’s chair with dilated pupils. She looks like one of Xaimur’s xerven, too.
“Not now. Leave.” Seferin waves her off.
She pouts before shooting a glare at me, like I’m the reason she’s being denied her fix.
When she rises and meets with the other girl, they wrap themselves around Maliek like seductive serpents. He doesn’t react, nor does he uncross his arms. He’s too busy glaring at me.
“The Maliek you killed on that island is, in fact, dead,” Seferin says.
I turn my gaze to the sorcerer behind the desk.
He’s leaning back in his chair, scanning me with intense, dark eyes.
“But it’s a good thing I kept a vial of his blood and created a new one.
Losing a fighter as skilled as he is would be such a waste. And to a mortal, no less.”
I tip my chin.
Seferin’s lips quirk up to create a smirk. “You intrigue me, Zaira Quinlocke.”
I work twice as hard to swallow the bitter taste on my tongue. “Do I?”
“Absolutely. I don’t know many mortals who’d risk their lives to acquire a stone in The Shallows that they aren’t even sure is there.”
“It was better than doing nothing.”
“And how did you feel when you found out they’d already been taken? When you realized Valkor withheld the truth from you all along?”
Stupid. Pathetic. Angry. Heartbroken.
I clench a fist in my lap. “Don’t change the subject. I want you to let Analla go.”
“If she weren’t a thieving whore, she wouldn’t be in this situation.”
It takes everything in me not to snap back. He’s trying to get under my skin. I can tell by the way his smirk widens, how he looks at me expectantly, waiting for a reaction.
I refuse to give him one.
“I studied everything there is to know about you once I found out you were traveling with Valkor.” Seferin rises from his chair and glides around the desk, pressing the pads of his fingers together.
“Such a simple girl with a tragic past. You only want good things for yourself and your sister. A refugee child. An orphan. You bake bread and treats for a living, for the gods’ sakes.
You shouldn’t be mixed up in the chaos he’s created.
But he came close to getting what he wanted in the end, right? Azidel’s tome?”
I press my lips together, refusing to answer.
“Don’t worry. I know he was going after it.
And I think I know why you’re here.” He stops behind me, smelling like wine and metal.
Strange, considering he has no metal on him.
Then I realize it’s a particular metal. Copper.
The scent of blood. I gulp. “But just so I don’t get ahead of myself, tell me why you’ve come all this way, Zaira. ”
“I can give you the tome,” I say, keeping my voice firm. “In exchange, you set my sister free.”
“Where is the tome now?”
“I hid it, but if you free her, I can lead you to it.”
“Hmm.” Seferin steps sideways.
I glance at him.
He’s staring at the bookcase behind his desk, filled to the brim with leather-bound books. In an instant, he steps away from me and teleports to the other side of the room before I can blink.
“You know, for a while, I couldn’t figure out what Valkor was thinking by traveling to The Shallows.
Then it hit me that he was going for the tome.
I figured surely he wouldn’t succeed in acquiring it.
Any sorcerer in their right mind would never consider the risk worth it, and I didn’t think there was a mortal’s blood worthy enough to secure Azidel’s tome.
Even if there were, that mortal had to be one hundred percent willing to offer their blood to obtain it. Do you know what that means, Zaira?”
I shift in my chair. “No.”
“It means a mortal cannot be forced into the Temple of Elphar to retrieve it for a sorcerer. The mortal must willingly enter, and they must trust the sorcerer who presents it to them. If it were the case of any person being able to get it, the tome would’ve been taken a long time ago.
But no.” Seferin waves a finger in the air with a sly smile.
“This person has to be there because their whole heart desires to be. This person has to have more hope in their heart than fear, and even less hatred. The tome sought the blood of a mortal who cares for others much more than they care for themselves, just as Azidel’s wife had. ”
I frown, confused.
Sensing my confusion, Seferin continues.
“Azidel’s wife was a selfless woman, if you didn’t know.
She risked her life in order to spare Azidel’s so he could have enough time to secure the tome in the temple before Xaimur could come for him.
He succeeded because of her sacrifice. And all this time, you were the perfect match to her.
” Seferin provides a wicked chuckle. “If there is one thing about Valkor, he has always been the perfect student. Always the one to understand the most complex situations and remember the tiniest of details. Great at getting people to trust him, too. After all, we let him roam freely among us, just to have him turn around and slaughter nearly half of our guild.”
Seferin appears next to me again.
“Well, I don’t care about Thane or the tome. You can have it,” I tell him. “Just please let my sister go. I’m willing to do anything for her.”
I avoid his eyes as he pushes some of my hair back in a gentler way than I expected. Then he runs his cool knuckles over my cheek.
I turn away.
Not yet.
Seferin scans me with his devious eyes, a hint of curiosity burning in his vision.
“I should take back what I said. You’re no simple mortal at all,” he murmurs near my ear.
“You are exactly what I need to elevate my status in Thelanor even more. You are what I like to call the perfect source. Your sister should never have been the one I kept in my dungeon.”
He snaps his fingers. “The cell is unlocked. Bring Analla to me,” he orders.
Maliek brushes the seductive girls off and rushes them out of the room as he goes.